290 Specimens of Indo-Sassanian Coins. [Aprii,, 



tripartite crown surmounted by an arch of jewels." All these head- 

 dresses, it must be remarked, are met with in the regular Sassanians 

 of Persia, and it may therefore be possible that they were but a 

 provincial coinage of the same dynasty. It was under this impres- 

 sion that I omitted to engrave the figures of these coins, reserving them 

 for a Sassanian series, — although some of them would have served 

 remarkably well as the precursors or prototypes of the copper coins 

 about to be described in Plate XV. 



The second exception noted by our countryman at Cdbul is the 

 Indo-Sassanian group, figs. 3, 5 and 6, of Plate XIV". " The strongly 

 marked Indian features of the busts, and their plentiful occurrence at 

 'Beyhram, especially of their copper money, prove these princes to 

 have ruled here. The heads are remarkable for the bulls' (or buffaloes') 

 skulls around them, — some having four or five of these ornaments, 

 but in general one only surmounts the cap. The legend is in a peculiar 

 and unknown type. The reverse is distinguished by the wheel over 

 the heads of the altar defenders." A great many of the type No. 5 

 were extracted from the principal tope of Hidduh near Jelaldbdd. 

 (See Vol. V. p. 28.) 



Mr. Mafson (J. A. S. Vol. V. 711) refers them to the Kidnidn 

 dynasty of Persian historians, to whom he would also attribute the 

 Bamidn antiquities. He cannot of course here allude to the early 

 branch, which includes Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius Hfstapes, for 

 it is verye vident that the coins before us cannot equal, much less 

 surpass, in antiquity the celebrated daric archers of Spartan notoriety. 

 He must rather speak of their far descendants, to whom the present 

 independent chiefs of Seistan still proudly trace their origin. This 

 race under the name of Tajik claims proprietary right to the soil, 

 though encroached upon by the Afghans on all sides, and at Bamidn they 

 are found inhabiting the very caves and temples constructed by their 

 infidel progenitors. 



As to the probable date of these coins then, little more can be conjec- 

 tured than that they were contemporaneous with the Sassanian dynasty 

 in Persia, viz. between the third and sixth centuries. Their frequent 

 discovery in the Panjdb topes, accompanied with the Indo-Scythics 

 having Greek legends, should give them a claim to the earlier period ; 

 but as far as the fire-worship is concerned, we learn from Price's 

 Muhammadan history, that " as late as the reign of Masau'd, son of 

 Sultan Mahmu'd of Ghizni (A. D. 1034), a race, supposed to be the 

 r emnant of the ancient Persian stock, submitted to his arms," who had 

 doubtless maintained their national faith to that time unchanged. 



